The present disclosure relates to a sliding electrical switch, which is commonly used in various electronic appliances such as a portable computer, or a GSM mobile telephone, or a personal digital assistant PDA.
Such a sliding electrical switch enables its user, via a control or actuation button, to act in two actuation or control directions by displacing the button in these two directions along a main actuation axis which is the sliding axis of this type of switch.
Such a switch is, for example, used to adjust the sound volume, up or down, such an actuation being generally performed by means of a single finger such as the thumb, for example when the electronic appliance is held in one hand and the button is arranged in a lateral edge of the housing of the electronic appliance.
Various electric slider switch designs have been known for very many years. However, none of the known designs can address the various current technical imperatives which notably include high compactness for such a component, in other words the shortest possible length of the component along the sliding axis of the switch, the most constant return force possible felt by the user, in both directions, while having a sufficient actuation travel, in both directions, in order for the user to fully sense his effective action on the button, and therefore on the switch, to establish, in each direction, at least one electrical switching channel at the end of travel, or, in the final part of the travel, to provoke, for example, an increase or reduction in a sound volume, and, finally, a reduced number of components inside the switch.
An electric slider switch is known, for example, from the document U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2008/0217156 comprising: a switch housing delimiting an internal chamber; a first slider which is arranged in said chamber and which is guided to slide along a horizontal axis of the housing so as to be mounted mobile in a first direction between an idle axial position which is defined by a first fixed end stop element of the housing, and an active axial position in which it cooperates with first electricity conducting means, arranged in the internal chamber, to establish a first electrical switching channel; and a first actuator which is connected in axial translation with the first slider and which extends out of the housing to enable the first slider to be actuated in said first direction towards its active axial position.
The present disclosure aims to propose a switch of this type which is more compact, has a reduced length and has little bulk.